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MonicaByrne_2016-_一个318岁的全息投影讲述的科幻爱情故事_
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| Do I look real to you? |
我看起来真实吗？ |
| Hope so. |
希望如此。 |
| I have no idea if you're seeing this, but I'm just going to look ahead and trust that you're there. |
我不确定你们能否看到我, 但我还是目视前方,就当你们都在吧。 |
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I have no idea:我没有头绪…; look ahead:预测未来,计划未来;
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| I've drawn a semicircle in the sand in front of me so I don't walk past it and look like I'm floating in midair . |
我在脚下的沙地上画了个半圆 帮助我定位,让我不至于看起来像浮在半空。 |
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semicircle:n.半圆,半圆形; midair:n.半空中;
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| Right now I'm standing in the open air , on a beach under a palm tree, in the exact spot where your stage used to be. |
此时此刻, 我站在户外, 在海滩的一颗棕榈树下, 正好是你们的舞台曾经所在的位置。 |
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in the open air:adj.露天;在户外; palm:n.手掌;手心;棕榈树;v.把…藏在手中(尤指玩戏法);
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| I have 12 minutes with you. |
我有12分钟的时间与你们共度。 |
| I set a limit. |
我设定了时限。 |
| My wife Navid once said that infinite possibility is a creator's worst enemy. |
我妻子娜维徳曾经说过 无限的可能性是创造者最大的敌人。 |
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infinite:adj.无限的,无穷的; n.无限;
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| For example, this dress: I'd asked her to design something that a priest might have worn in 23rd-century Cairo . |
举个例子,我身上这条裙子,是我请她设计的, 我想要的是23世纪开罗祭司的风格。 |
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priest:n.司祭,神父;教士,祭司,僧侣;v.使成为教士;任命…为祭司; Cairo:开罗(埃及首都)
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| But we only had three days to make it, and the only fabric we had was an old duvet cover that another resident left behind. |
但我们只有3天时间来完成它, 而我们手头仅有的布料 是别人留下的一个旧的羽绒被套。 |
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fabric:n.织物;布料;(社会,机构等的)结构; duvet:n.羽绒被(等于continentalquilt);羽绒衫(等于duvetjacket);绒毛状生长物; resident:adj.居住的;住院医师;定居的;n.居民;
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| But she did it, and it's perfect. |
但她还是完成了,而且非常漂亮。 |
| And she looked at it and said, " Proof of concept -- creation needs constraint ." |
她看着裙子,说到, “只是个雏形——创造需要限制。” |
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Proof:n.证据;证实;adj.能抵御;可防护; creation:n.创造,创作;创作物,产物; constraint:n.[数]约束;局促,态度不自然;强制;
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| So with these 12 minutes, |
我要利用这12分钟时间, |
| I'm going to tell you about my greatest discovery. |
与你们分享我最大的发现。 |
| For my whole life, my obsession has been eternal life, as I know it is so many of yours. |
我一生都在追求永生, 我相信你们中间很多人也跟我一样。 |
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obsession:n.痴迷;困扰;[内科][心理]强迫观念; eternal:adj.永恒的;不朽的;
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| You may be happy to know that your research will pay off. |
告诉你们一个好消息,你们的努力没有白费。 |
| I am 318 years old. |
我已经318岁了。 |
| The average human lifespan is now 432 years, and my work has been to extend the human lifespan indefinitely . |
目前人类的平均寿命是432岁, 我的工作是将人类寿命无限延长。 |
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lifespan:n.寿命;预期生命期限;预期使用期限; extend:vt.延伸; vi.延伸; indefinitely:adv.不确定地,无限期地;模糊地,不明确地;
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| And I've never questioned that someday, we'll reach a point where we'll be content . |
对此我充满信心, 我坚信有一天我们会成功。 |
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content:n.内容,目录;满足;容量;adj.满意的;vt.使满足;
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| But the opposite keeps happening: the longer we live, the longer we want to live, the less we want to die. |
但矛盾一直存在: 我们的寿命越长,就想活得更久, 就越不想死去。 |
| Who can blame us? |
这很正常,对吗？ |
| The universe is so big. |
宇宙如此浩瀚。 |
| There won't ever not be more to see. |
总是有值得我们探索的地方。 |
| Just yesterday, |
就在昨天, |
| I was reading about how you can take out a boat on Europa and sail from island to island all over the planet, and some of the islands have villages that you can stay and visit and sleep under the shadow of Jupiter . |
我读了一篇文章,你可以在木卫二上泛舟, 从一个小岛到另一个小岛,游遍整颗行星, 有些岛上有村庄,你可以留宿一晚, 在木星的巨大阴影下安睡。 |
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Europa:n.欧罗巴(腓尼基王阿革诺耳之女);[天]木卫二; Jupiter:n.[天]木星;朱庇特(罗马神话中的宙斯神);
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| And then there's this other island where there's just one songwriter who sits and plays mandolin for the ocean. |
有些小岛人烟稀少,只有一位歌者, 面朝大海,弹奏曼陀林。 |
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songwriter:n.流行歌曲的作者;歌曲作家; mandolin:n.曼陀林(一种琵琶乐器);
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| And then there are others where there's no one and there never has been, and so you go just for the pleasure of touching your foot to sand that no foot has ever touched before. |
还有的小岛人迹罕至, 甚至从未有人踏足, 你可以上去享受宁静,在沙滩上留下足迹, 成为小岛的首位访客。 |
| You could spend 400 years doing just that. |
你可以花400年的时间来做上面这些事。 |
| Right now the Moon is rising in the Northeast . |
现在,月亮从东北方向升起来了。 |
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Northeast:adj.东北的;来自东北的;n.东北;adv.向东北;来自东北;
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| I can see the cities on it with my naked eye. |
上面城市密布,我用肉眼就能看到。 |
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naked:adj.裸体的;无装饰的;无证据的;直率的;
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| They're connected like nerve clusters : |
城市像神经网络一样相互连接: |
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nerve:n.神经;勇气;神经质;神经紧张;v.鼓足勇气;振作精神; clusters:n.[植]簇;丛(cluster的复数形式);[计]群集;
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| Mariapolis on the South Pole , and Ramachandran on the Equator. |
位于南极的玛丽亚城,位于赤道的拉马钱德兰市。 |
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South Pole:n.南极;
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| And New Tehran in the Sea of Tranquility . |
还有位于宁静海的新德黑兰市。 |
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Tehran:n.德黑兰; Tranquility:n.宁静;平静;
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| That's where Navid and I met. |
我和娜维徳就是在那里相遇的。 |
| We were both artists downtown . |
我俩都是画家,住在市中心。 |
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downtown:n.市区;闹市区;adv.在市区;在热闹街上;到闹市区;adj.闹市区的;
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| The day we met, we were passing each other in Azadi Square, and we bumped shoulders. |
那天,我俩在阿扎迪广场相遇, 不小心撞在一起。 |
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bumped:v.碰,撞;碰上,撞上;颠簸行进(bump的过去分词和过去式)
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| And I turned to apologize and she, without saying hello or introducing herself or anything, said, "Well, why do you think we didn't just pass through each other?" |
我转身道歉, 而她,没有打招呼,也没做自我介绍, 她说,“你不觉得我们刚刚穿过了彼此吗？” |
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pass through:穿过;经历;经验;遭受;
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| And first of all , I thought, "Who the hell are you?" |
当时我的第一反应是,“你谁呀？” |
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first of all:adv.首先;
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| But second, the question annoyed me, because the answer is so simple. |
但紧接着,我对她问的问题感到很不爽, 因为答案实在是太简单。 |
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annoyed:adj.恼怒;生气;烦恼;v.使恼怒;使生气;打扰;骚扰(annoy的过去分词和过去式)
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| I said, "We didn't pass through each other because elementary particles have mass and because the space between elementary particles is filled with the binding energy that also has the properties of mass, and we've known that for 800 years." |
我说,“我们没有穿过彼此, 是因为基本粒子有质量, 而基本粒子之间的空间 充满着结合能,同样具有质量特征, 这道理我们800年前就懂了。” |
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elementary:adj.基本的;初级的;[化学]元素的; particles:n.微粒,粒子;粒子系统;碎木料(particle的复数形式); mass:n.块,团; adj.群众的,民众的; v.聚集起来,聚集; binding:v.结合; n.(书籍的)封皮; adj.必须遵守的; (bind的现在分词)
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| She must have been in one of those moods where she likes to mess with strangers. |
她当时肯定心情不错, 想逗逗我这个陌生人。 |
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moods:n.情绪(mood的复数); mess:n.混乱;餐厅;杂乱;肮脏;v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺;
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| Or maybe she was just flirting with me, because she looked at me and said, "I thought you'd say that. |
或者纯粹想跟我调调情, 因为她看着我,说,“我一猜你就会这么说, |
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flirting:v.调情,打情骂俏;(flirt的现在分词)
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| Think deeper." |
再好好想想。” |
| And then she took off her belt , this belt that I'm wearing now, and she said, "Our universe is built so that particles have mass. |
然后她解下了自己的腰带, 就是现在系在我身上的这一条, 她说, “在我们的宇宙里,粒子就是有质量的。 |
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belt:n.皮带;腰带;传动带;传送带;v.猛击;狠打;飞奔;飞驰;
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| Without that basic constraint, we'd have just passed right through each other at the speed of light and never even known." |
没有这一基本原则的限制, 我们就会以光速穿过彼此 而不自知。” |
| And that's how our romance began. |
我们的爱情就这样发生了。 |
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romance:n.爱情;恋爱;风流韵事;传奇故事;
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| Navid and I never ran out of things to talk about. |
娜维徳和我 永远有聊不完的话题。 |
| Never. |
从未停止。 |
| It was incredible . |
这一点非常奇妙。 |
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incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的;
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| It was like we were both heroes climbing up into a mountain range together and we kept arriving at new vistas , and these new, perfect constellations of words would come out of us to describe them. |
那感觉就像我们是两位勇士,一同去征服崇山峻岭, 沿途不断发现新的风景, 而我们总能找到新的、美妙的词语 来描述眼前的无敌美景。 |
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vistas:n.远景,狭长的街景;展望;回顾; constellations:n.[天]星座(constellation的复数); describe:v.描述;形容;把…称为;画出…图形;
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| And we'd forget them as soon as we made them, and throw them over our shoulder and go on to the next thing, on and up. |
很快,我们又将这一切抛诸脑后, 轻装上阵,去征服下一个目标。 |
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as soon as:一…就;
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| Or one time, Navid said that our talk was like we were always making bread, and that we were always adding in a little more flour and a little more water, and folding it in and turning it over and never getting around to baking it. |
或者像娜维徳形容的,我俩的谈话就像做面包, 我们总是不停地加一点面, 再加一点水, 揉进面团里,不停揉搓, 却从不把面团送进烤箱。 |
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baking:n.烘焙,烘烤; adj.烘烤的; v.烤,烘焙; (bake的现在分词)
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| If my obsession was eternal life, Navid's obsession was touch. |
如果说我对永生着迷,那么娜维徳就对抚摸着迷。 |
| She had a genius for it. |
她是个天生的抚摸者。 |
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genius:n.天才;天资;才能,本领;
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| All of her work revolved around it. |
她所有的作品也与抚摸有关。 |
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revolved:v.旋转(revolve的过去式,过去分词);n.旋转曲面;回转面;转体;adj.旋转的;
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| My body was like a canvas for her, and she would draw her fingertip down over my face so slowly that I couldn't feel it moving. |
我的身体就像她的画布, 她的指尖总是沿着我的脸慢慢往下, 速度之慢,我都感觉不到移动。 |
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canvas:n.帆布;(帆布)画布;油画;vt.用帆布覆盖; fingertip:n.指尖;
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| And she was obsessed with the exact moment when I would stop being able to tell the difference between her body and mine. |
让她最着迷的就是那个瞬间, 我分不清自己的身体和她的身体。 |
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obsessed:v.使痴迷;使迷恋;使着迷;(obsess的过去式和过去分词)
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| Or she would just lie across me and dig her shoulder into mine and say, "Pilar, why does this feel so good?" |
有时她与我相拥而卧,将肩头埋在我的肩头之下, 问道,“皮拉尔,为什么这感觉就这么好呢？” |
| I'd say, "I don't know!" |
我会说,“我也不知道！” |
| And she always had a facetious answer for her facetious question, but the answer I remember today is, "It feels good because the universe chose its constraints , and we are its art." |
对于自己恶作剧的问题,她的回答总是那么古灵精怪, 然而今天我还能记得的答案是, “之所以感觉很好, 是因为宇宙设定了限制, 而我们是（这限制下的）艺术品。” |
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facetious:adj.诙谐的;爱开玩笑的;滑稽的; answer for:因…而受罚;对…负责; constraints:n.[数]约束;限制;约束条件(constraint的复数形式);
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| It's always funny what you think the future is going to be like versus what it turns out to be. |
当你将想象的未来与真实的未来进行对比时, 总是很有意思。 |
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versus:prep.对;与...相对;对抗;
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| In your time, scientists thought humans could freeze themselves and wake up in the future. |
在你们的年代,科学家认为可以将人类冷冻起来 未来再将他们唤醒。 |
| And they did -- but then they died. |
他们这么做了——但是失败了。 |
| In your time, scientists thought humans could replace organs and extend life for hundreds of years. |
在你们的年代,科学家认为可以通过更换器官 将人类的寿命延长几百年。 |
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organs:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴(organ的复数);
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| And they did, but eventually , they died anyway. |
他们这么做了, 但是最终还是失败了。 |
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eventually:adv.最后,终于;
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| In your time, Earth is the only place people live. |
在你们的年代,地球是唯一一个人类可以生存的地方。 |
| In my time, Earth is the place people come to die. |
而在我这个年代,人们来地球是为了死去。 |
| So when Navid started to show the signs, our friends assumed I would do what everyone does, which is say goodbye and send her to Earth, so that none of us would have to look at her or be around her or think about her and her ... |
因此当娜维徳身上开始出现病症时, 我们的朋友觉得我会像其他人一样, 跟她告别然后送她来地球, 这样一来我们就不必眼睁睁看着她走, 不必围在她身边,不必追忆她的人生...... |
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assumed:adj.假定的;假设的;v.假定;假设;认为;承担;(assume的过去分词和过去式)
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| failure to keep living. |
不必去想她的离开。 |
| More than anything, they didn't want to be around her actual physical body. |
大家最不想做的, 就是围绕在她的肉身旁边。 |
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physical:adj.[物]物理的;身体的;物质的;符合自然法则的;n.体格检查;
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| They kept referring to it as " declining ," |
他们一直称之为“衰退”, |
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referring:v.引用;提到;将…归因于…;把…提交;(refer的现在分词) declining:v.减少;下降;衰弱;谢绝;婉言拒绝;(decline的现在分词)
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| even though she herself was fascinated by it, the changes it was going through, following the rules of its nature day by day , independent of her will. |
尽管她自己对这很着迷, 她的身体产生的变化, 不以她的意志为转移,一天天随着自然规律变化。 |
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day by day:adj.每天的; independent of:不依赖…的;不受…支配的;
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| I did send Navid to Earth. |
我确实将娜维徳送回了地球。 |
| But I came with her. |
但我也一起去了。 |
| I remember a friend of ours, just before we left, said, "I just think it's arrogant , like the rules don't apply to you, like you think your love is that special." |
我记得我俩的一个朋友,在我们出发之前说, “我觉得这太作了, 好像规律不适用于你们,好像你们的爱能感天动地。” |
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arrogant:adj.自大的,傲慢的; apply:v.申请;涂,敷;应用;适用;请求;
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| But I did. |
但我就是这么做了。 |
| So, even here on Earth, |
因此,即使在地球上, |
| I kept working on how to extend life. |
我依然在研究如何延长生命。 |
| It didn't occur to me that there could be any other response . |
我从未想过 还有另一条路可以走。 |
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occur:v.发生;出现;存在于;出现在; response:n.响应;反应;回答;
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| I kept going back to that thing that Navid said to me that day in Azadi Square, that without that basic constraint -- a universe that granted mass to matter -- we would not exist. |
我不停回想起那一天,娜维徳 在阿扎迪广场对我说的话, 如果没有这条基本的限制—— 宇宙赋予物体质量—— 我们就不会存在。 |
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granted:v.不错,的确; conj.因为; v.同意,准予,允许; (grant的过去分词和过去式)
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| That's one rule. |
这是规则之一。 |
| Another rule is that all mass is subject to entropy . |
另一条规则是所有质量受熵支配。 |
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entropy:n.[热]熵(热力学函数);
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| And there is no way to be in this universe without mass. |
没有质量,就不可能在这个宇宙存在。 |
| I know. I tried everything. |
我明白,（因为）我尝试过所有方法。 |
| I tried creating a photon box where the Higgs field was altered . |
我尝试建立了一个光子盒,那里连希格斯场都发生了改变。 |
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photon:n.[物]光子;辐射量子;见光度(等于lightquantum); altered:adj.改变了的:v.(使)改变,更改,改动:(alter的过去分词和过去式)
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| I tried recording all subatomic movements in my body and replaying them on closed loop . |
我尝试记录下我体内所有的亚原子运动 然后在一个闭环系统中重放。 |
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subatomic:adj.[化学]亚原子的;原子内的; replaying:v.重赛;重新播放(replay的现在分词) loop:n.循环;回路;环路;圈;v.使成环;使绕成圈;成环形移动;
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| Nothing worked. |
都没有用。 |
| But my final innovation was to create a coil dimension with the boundaries of a body in which time moved infinitely slower, but whose projection would appear to move in normal time. |
我最后的方法是用线圈做出一个形体, 在其边界之内时间流逝变得无限慢, 而它在外界的投影,时间流逝是正常的。 |
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innovation:n.创新,革新;新方法; coil:n.盘管;螺旋管;感应圈;(一)圈;v.卷;卷曲;蜿蜒流进; dimension:n.方面;[数]维;尺寸;次元;容积vt.标出尺寸;adj.规格的; boundaries:n.边界;分界线;(boundary的复数) infinitely:adv.无限地;极其; projection:n.投射;规划;突出;发射;推测;
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| That body would then appear in our universe as a hologram -- here but not here. |
这个形体在我们的宇宙中可以以全息投影的形式存在—— 在这里,却也不在这里。 |
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hologram:n.[激光]全息图;全息摄影,全息照相;
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| When I realized I'd done it, |
我意识到自己成功了, |
| I ran to her room, so happy to tell her I'd done it, moving through space almost normally to all eyes, even to my own, and went to lie down next to her, and forgot, and fell right through her. |
于是跑进她的房间, 满心欢喜地想告诉她我成功了, 我移动的方式看起来很正常, 连我自己都看不出异常, 我跑到她身边躺下, 我忘了（自己没有实体）,直接穿过了她的身体。 |
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normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地;
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| I'd found a way to eternal life, at the expense of the one thing Navid loved most, which was to touch and be touched. |
我找到了永生的方法, 代价却是娜维徳最看重的一件事, 抚摸和被抚摸。 |
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at the expense of:以…为代价;由…支付费用;
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| And she threw me out. |
她把我赶了出去。 |
| I still got to watch, though. |
但我仍然能看见她。 |
| Humans live 400 years now, and we still die. |
人类已经可以活400年, 但我们仍然会死。 |
| And when death comes, the dying still pick at their bedsheets , and their arms break out in blue and violet blooms on the insides, and their breaths get further and further apart, like they're falling asleep. |
当死亡来临时, 死者（可能）还在挑剔自己的床单, 他们的手臂会突然由内而外变得青一块紫一块, 呼吸会越来越微弱, 如同渐渐睡去。 |
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bedsheets:n.床单; violet:n.紫罗兰;紫罗兰色;蓝紫色;adj.紫罗兰色的; blooms:n.花朵(bloom的复数);[生态]水华;v.开花(bloom的三单形式);
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| I've always thought that what gives a life meaning is adventure . |
我一直认为, 生命的意义在于探险。 |
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what gives:出了什么事; adventure:n.冒险;奇遇;经历;冒险游戏;v.探险;以…冒险;大胆进行;闯;
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| And death is just a problem we haven't discovered the solution to yet. |
而死亡仅仅是一道难题, 我们暂时还没有找到答案。 |
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solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
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| But maybe a life has meaning only because it ends. |
但也许生命之所以有意义就因为它有终点。 |
| Maybe that's the paradox : constraints don't constrain, they allow perfect freedom. |
也许这是一个悖论: 限制本身并没有限制任何东西,它允许完全的自由。 |
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paradox:n.悖论,反论;似非而是的论点;自相矛盾的人或事;
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| (Sighs) |
（叹息） |
| There was a thunderstorm here this morning. |
今天早上这里有雷暴。 |
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thunderstorm:n.[气象]雷暴;雷暴雨;大雷雨;
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| There is another forecast for tonight, but for now the sky is clear. |
天气预报今晚还有, 但现在天空是晴朗的。 |
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forecast:n.预测;预报;v.预测;预报;
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| I can't feel the wind here, but I just asked one of the caretakers who passed by what it felt like, and she said it felt warm, like melted butter. |
我感觉不到风, 但我刚刚问了一个路过的守护者,感觉如何, 她说感觉很温暖,像融化的黄油。 |
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caretakers:n.看管者;看门人;守护者;adj.临时代理的; melted:v.(使)熔化,融化;(使)软化,变得温柔;(melt的过去分词和过去式)
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| An answer worthy of my wife. |
我妻子就喜欢这样的答案。 |
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worthy:adj.值得的; n.杰出人物;
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| I have to find my way back to the flesh . |
我必须找到回到自己肉身的方法。 |
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flesh:n.肉;肉体;v.喂肉给…;发胖;
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| Until then, I take up no space but the space you give me. |
在那之前,我只会占用你们给我的这些空间。 |